NER: Nanoscale Environmental Sensors and Societal & Educational Implications for Native Americans

Washington State University, Pullman WA

Investigators

Abstract

0508521 Van Wie This proposal was received in response to Nanoscale Science and Engineering initiative, NSF 04-043, category NER. This research falls under the areas of "Nanoscale Processes in the Environment" and "Societal and Educational Implications of Advances on the Nanoscale." Growing numbers of aqueous pollutants are known to bio-accumulate and adversely affect human health, which creates serious concerns for the environment, economics, and national security. Health risks from environmental contamination are even more serious for Native Americans, due to a hunting and gathering lifestyle, and for migrant workers, due to herbicide and pesticide exposure. This inquiry will perform preliminary studies with nanoscale sensors to understand fundamental principles governing transport and sensing of persistent environmental contaminants, and consider environmental and social risk factors as they impact Native American and Hispanic migrant society and economic infrastructure. Early education in a societal context is the key to attracting and training future Tribal and Hispanic scientists who can help their communities understand and deal with environmental concerns. It is important to educate intellectual leaders in minority communities who can: understand social implications; work in teams on difficult projects; and communicate well with non-specialists and the public. This NER will develop fundamental understanding on nanoscale environmental sensors and use the research to create an educational model that trains graduates in nanoscience and teaching pedagogy, to interface with high school teachers and underrepresented students to stimulate interest in higher education. Many high school students in minority communities are not college bound; the project plans to alter this by directly interfacing with these students. This NER includes micromachining to make nanopores that support long-term stable bilayer lipid membranes (BLMs) for fast, sensitive ISEs to monitor the aqueous environment; using immunogenic molecular competition to identify non-charged organic pollutants; stabilizing BLMs by changing nanostructure with lipids from extremophile bacteria; and employing a hands-on cooperative pedagogy focused on socio-environmental problems facing Native American and Hispanic migrant societies. Key educational features include collaborating with the Nixyaawii Tribal Charter School of the CTUIR and Hispanic Mabton Jr./Sr. High School to incorporate basic scientific components into their science curriculum; developing student friendly and robust hand-held fieldable electronic packages to assist in the educational component of the research, and interacting with the high school faculty to develop student friendly scientific curricula centered on environmental and societal relevance of nanoscale technology. Of major intellectual merit are cutting-edge basic and applied research on ion selective membrane bottleneck areas, to make environmental nanoscale sensors, and an educational experiment to test a new model in societal context for encouraging Tribal and Hispanic underrepresented groups to consider secondary education. Results will include research and educational models that can be adopted by peer institutions in attracting a new generation of undergraduates from under-represented minorities, and advanced nanoscale biosensors for better environmental monitoring of Native Tribal lands and agricultural settings where migrants work.